From Ick to Icon: They've Come a Long, Long Way with Their Personal Style

The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City was established in 1937 to preserve historically significant costumes and accessories from the past, and now possesses over 35,000 such artefacts. In order to keep the institute thriving, the Met has been throwing an annual gala since 1971, attracting the world’s most famous faces for a red-carpet walk, a tour of the current exhibit, and a cocktail hour.

While, for decades, the Met Gala attire was straightforwardly black-tie oriented, it has become one of the most creative playing fields for red-carpet looks in the past two decades. With themes like goddesses, superheros, and punks, the A-list guests have plenty of opportunity to flex their sartorial muscles, culminating in some of the most exciting fashion of the year. Over time, we’ve seen Princess Diana stun in Dior, Sarah Jessica Parker go all-out with extravagant costumes, and megawatt stars like Rihanna and Beyoncé serving seriously memorable looks.

With the Met Gala’s new Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imaginationexhibit launching on May 10th and the Met Gala red-carpet extravaganza happening on May 2nd, we thought this was the perfect time to revisit some of the best looks – and how they’ve evolved – over the past two decades.